Gators toughness on display in road win over Mississippi State

Embed from Getty Images

Sometimes adjustments are overrated.

The Gators outscored Mississippi State 10-0 in the second half to pull off a 13-6 win in Starkville on Saturday night, but it wasn’t because of any magic changes made by the coaching staff. Instead, the Gators just executed the game plan better.

The offense stalled in the first half, not because of play calling or ability, but because of multiple false start and holding penalties. It still wasn’t a work of art in the second half (i.e. the hold on Jawaan Taylor that negated a 50+ yard completion to Trevon Grimes and QB Feleipe Franks’ interception), but from that point on there were no more penalties on the offense.

It’s not a coincidence that after the interception, the Gators managed to put up 206 yards after having only 131 in the first half. It turns out that not shooting yourself in the foot is a good way to move the ball consistently.

Feleipe Franks was okay in this one. Plenty of people will talk about the progress he’s made and rightfully so. He’s significantly better than last season.

But this wasn’t one of his finest games. He certainly made some nice throws, particularly on third down. But overall he had a YAR of -0.90 and threw two passes in particular where the underneath linebacker was in his throwing lane and got his hands on it.

Once it went through the linebacker’s hands or it would have been a pick-six. The other time it bounced up off the linebacker’s hands and turned into an interception. Last year that interception would have been a backbreaker that turned the game in Mississippi State’s favor, but that wasn’t the case Saturday night.

That’s because this game wasn’t about Franks or the Gators offense. This game was about the Florida defense.

The Gators defense excelled overall, giving up only 202 yards for the game and an average of 3.5 yards per play. Mississippi State QB Nick Fitzgerald struggled with a YAR of -2.70 and averaged only 3.8 yards per pass.

But those dominating numbers were much more pedestrian in the first half as the Gators allowed 159 yards at a 5.1 yard per play clip. The good news was that the defense wasn’t getting gashed for any explosive plays like they did against Kentucky. The bad news was that they were giving up too much at the point of attack.

Florida’s defensive strategy was interesting. For the vast majority of the game they had six men in the box, daring Mississippi State to run the ball and forcing Fitzgerald to throw against zones. This strategy requires your defensive line to win up-front.

On this play in the first half, the defensive line did not win. Right after the snap, defensive tackle Kyree Campbell (#55) gets driven backwards. This allows Mississippi State center Elgton Jenkins (#74) to get to the second level and block linebacker David Reese (#33). The result is a first-down run.

This wasn’t an isolated incident in the first half and wasn’t limited to Campbell either.

Here defensive lineman Jachai Polite (#99) tries to rush around the edge and runs himself right out of the play. It looks like defensive tackles Marlon Dunlap, Jr. (#91) and Jabari Zuniga (#92) are running a stunt and Zuniga gets knocked back by the Mississippi State offensive line. Linebacker David Reese (#33) hesitates because he has to read whether Fitzgerald will keep the ball. The result is a gaping hole that led to a first down on a third-and-7 running play.

Losing at the point of attack also showed up in the passing game in the first half.

On this play, linebacker Rayshad Jackson (#44) takes on tight end Justin Johnson (#81) and gets driven backwards. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (#23) engages the wide receiver’s block five yards downfield. The result is that the running back gets tackled 10-yards downfield by defensive tackle Kyree Campbell (#55) who does a great job of hustling out to the sideline.

Losing at the point of attack is about attitude and toughness. The Gators were relatively passive in the first half. All of that changed after halftime.

This is virtually the same play with the same alignment as above. But on this play, watch how linebacker David Reese (#33) attacks tight end Dontea Jones (#84). And watch how Gardner-Johnson (#23) drives his man – wide receiver Austin Williams (#85) – right into the ball carrier. The result is a tackle for loss rather than a first down.

The Gators also won the point of attack against the running game as well in the second half.

At the snap, defensive tackle Tedarrell Slaton (#56) drives Mississippi State right guard Stewart Reese (#51) two-yards into the backfield. QB Nick Fitzgerald reads that defensive end Jachai Polite (#99) follows the running back to the sideline which means he should keep the ball on the read-option. But there is nowhere for Fitzgerald to go because of Slaton’s penetration.

Grantham did call some creative blitzes to help out the defense. The one that ended the game was particularly aggressive, as he brought both safeties and left the middle of the field wide open. But for the most part, he trusted his six guys up-front to control Mississippi State’s running game.

In the first half, they were unable to do so and so Mississippi State had two drives that used over 13 minutes of clock. Florida’s offense couldn’t get going because it only had the ball three times.

But in the second half, the defense forced four three-and-outs. The Bulldogs averaged 1.6 yards per play. It was complete domination.

And that domination didn’t come from a scheme change or anything fancy that Mullen or Grantham did at the half. Instead, this is the first time that we’ve seen the effects of strength coach Nick Savage and the aggressiveness that Mullen and his staff have instilled in this team.

The defense was a weak link for last year’s team. It got pushed around against Kentucky earlier this year. And quite honestly, it got pushed around in the first half against Mississippi State.

The game probably turns out very differently if Mississippi State receiver Osirus Mitchell catches the deep throw that Fitzgerald put right on his hands. But Florida had the aforementioned holding call on its deep pass the series before. The reality is that the deep shot to Mitchell was the only time that Florida’s defense got beat and Mississippi State was unable to make it pay.

From that point on, the Gators defense got more aggressive and showed it was the tougher unit.

It only gets tougher next week as LSU comes to town. But this team has shown a resilience that certainly I didn’t think they had beating two SEC foes on the road in consecutive weeks.

Franks continues to get better. The offensive line continues to get better. And in this game, the defense showed improvement well beyond what we’ve seen this season.

And while the staff didn’t make any significant halftime adjustments, it does need to be credited for an adjustment last year’s staff never made.

This Gators team is getting better in a different way every single week.

FEATURED IMAGE USED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE FROm Brian norwood